Open Letter to President Trump

I write you this Presidents’ Day as a concerned citizen. I voted for you on Election Day, and while I have my disagreements with certain of your appointments, I am largely in support of the direction you have taken since your inauguration last month, especially in regard to the matter of the immigration crisis and your condemnation of the mainstream media.

That being said, I do have several humble requests to make. As an unabashed member of the right-wing of the American political spectrum, I can say in all confidence that I am not the only supporter of yours who wants to see these changes made. Your consideration of the following requests would therefore be greatly appreciated by many of Your Fellow Americans.

I ran for the United States Senate in the same election cycle in which you were running for the presidency. Being a member of the Libertarian Party, I was of course destined to defeat in that election; but the following policies, which were the basis of my campaign platform, are still capable of restoring the American republic, even if it is the President who introduces them instead of some junior senator from Florida.

End mass immigration. You will not find a single American who believes that our immigration system works, whether they are on the Left or the Right. We need to have a more efficient system in place so that legitimate immigrants are not deterred and illegal immigrants are not canonized as hallowed martyrs. More importantly, we must end mass immigration if we are to avoid total societal collapse. Immigration does play a role in the American identity, but mass immigration heralds the fall of entire civilizations. Open borders, amnesty to illegal immigrants, and the recruitment of refugees: these are suicidal policies that must be ended.

Implement a sound monetary policy. Spending by the Federal Government has been out of control for generations. If we are to avoid a total collapse, we must make drastic changes to the federal financial structure. We must balance the budget; shrink the size of the Federal Government; cease reckless government spending; deregulate American businesses. We must repeal the individual income tax, abolish the Internal Revenue Service, and recreate the tax code so that the American people can understand what they are being asked to pay to their government.

Abolish the Federal Reserve. Few Americans are aware that our money is printed not by the Federal Government but by the Federal Reserve. Few Americans are aware that the Federal Reserve is not a branch of our government but is actually a group of private banks; or that the Federal Reserve lends money to our government at interest; or that this usurpation of power by private banks is intended to make the banks richer, not to help the public good. It is a force inimical to the American people, and it is the foremost cause of economic ruin in our country. We must repeal the Federal Reserve Act and abolish the Federal Reserve.

End the War on Drugs. The War on Drugs is a failure and an embarrassment. It is a failure, not because the cartels have won, but because it is not the Federal Government’s role to usurp the legitimate prerogatives of the States. It is an embarrassment, not because the American people continue to consume drugs, but because we have spent countless billions of dollars waging a war that has only made the problem worse. Law enforcement officers as well as criminals have destroyed our families and communities in the course of this domestic war. We must repeal the Controlled Substances Act, abolish the Drug Enforcement Administration, and stop militarizing the police against the citizenry of this country.

Implement a non-interventionist foreign policy. For the past hundred years, the United States has involved itself in the wars of the world, justifying its greed with dubious talk of peace and brotherhood. Our Federal Government has assumed the mantle of the world’s policeman, dedicated to interfering with the governments of other nations in other parts of the globe. This has cost us an extraordinary amount of American lives, countless trillions of dollars, and untold embarrassment. We must embrace a policy of non-intervention without becoming isolationist; we must lead the world without becoming the monsters we swore to fight; we must decline to waste billions of dollars protecting reckless allies and laying waste to sovereign countries in the name of humanity.

End regulation of civil liberties by the Federal Government. Whether an American marries a member of the same sex or of the opposite sex is not the concern of the Federal Government. Whether an American speaks with his wife or his mistress is not the concern of the NSA. Whether an American consumes alcohol or marijuana is not the concern of the DEA. Whether an American owns one firearm or three is not the concern of the ATF. We must restore the rights of the States to regulate their own health, safety, and morality, and limit the power of the Federal Government to interfere with the private affairs of our citizens.

Cease and desist federal interference in education. “One-size-fits-all” education standards set by a central authority are harmful to both the most gifted and the most challenged children. Programs such as No Child Left Behind and Common Core overemphasize standardized testing at the expense of individual exploration and classical scholarship. Strict standards also encourage administrative bloat, which raises the cost of education with little benefit to the students. We believe education should not be regulated at the federal level and should instead be handled at the State and local levels.

Promote policies that will protect our natural environment. Economic freedom does not necessitate the destruction of the environment. America can be productive and powerful without polluting the air, water, and soil. The freedom of Americans to pursue their business interests should not mean that we can no longer drink our own water. And where urban sprawl may threaten our American Wilderness, there we must decide which we cherish more: strip malls or our children’s heritage.

End American dependence on foreign energy. America must become independent of the need for foreign energy. Aside from the economic cost of our dependence on foreign oil, it involves us in endless, unnecessary wars. Whether the consideration is economic or military, domestic or foreign policy, we must find alternative sources of energy.

Restore States’ rights. The Federal Government does not have the authority to regulate individual matters of health and safety, which are the legitimate prerogative of the State governments. Issues like abortion, drugs, and welfare should be handled at the State level, and any federal legislation deviating from this principle should be vetoed.

Thank you very much for your consideration of these requests. Perhaps if you can restore this republic of ours, we can avoid a bloody civil war, after all. No matter what the media says, many of us are rooting for you in this endeavor.

Libertas et Imperium,

Augustus Sol Invictus, Esq.

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An attorney, writer, and political activist in Orlando, Florida, Augustus Invictus is best known as a radical philosopher and social critic. Invictus is a member of the right-wing of the Libertarian Party. He ran for the United States Senate in Florida as a Libertarian in 2016 and formerly served as Chair of the Libertarian party of Orange County.

Invictus earned his B.A. in Philosophy at the University of South Florida in Tampa and his J.D. at DePaul University College of Law in Chicago. Returning to his hometown of Orlando, he studied leadership at Rollins Crummer Graduate School of Business and opened the law firm for which he served as Managing Partner until his retirement from law practice.

A Southerner and a father of five children, Invictus contends that revolutionary conservatism requires a shift in perspective from the exaltation of abstract ideologies to a focus on our families and communities.